Scarf-Wearing Family

It got cold here last night! This morning, I sent Matt a picture of myself wearing a scarf he got me for Christmas. He responded to my email with a picture of himself at work wearing his scarf. Just so the whole family could be involved in scarf-wearing, I put one on Penny and took a picture to send to Matt. Surprisingly, she seemed to like it! And let's be honest... she looks awfully cute! :)

 

Penny the Climber

Penny recently figured out how to climb our fence. Thankfully, she doesn't run off when she gets out, but who knows how long that will last before she becomes more adventurous. When she would climb
out she would either go to the church building, or go wait on our front porch. We spied on her some to see if there was a certain spot she was climbing over, or what was making her climb over. What we learned was that (1) she can climb any part of the fence, and (2) usually she climbs over in pursuit of a squirrel.

Matt spied on her a few times and blew an air horn when she started to climb over. She is very sensitive to loud noises like that, so we are thinking (and hoping) that she learned after a few times. We haven't seen her try to climb over in a while now. We are hoping that did the trick, because we did some research into the cost of altering our fence to keep her in, and even the cheapest options cost a couple hundred dollars!

We had a few days of rain recently, so Matt took her to work with him. She loves hanging out at the church building.

Pregnancy Update

I am getting close to the five month mark! It is kind of hard to believe. My morning sickness has finally subsided, but about the time those ailments faded, I got hit hard with a cold. Most of it has gone away, but I haven't quite been able to shake the annoying cough. The only entertaining thing about having a cough is that my belly button has already started changing, and every time I cough, the entire thing pops out for just a second. Matt was nearly in tears one night laughing at it popping in and out.

I'm still waiting for the "energy boost" that I keep reading about. I'm glad the sickness has faded, but I'm still pretty tired most of the time. My appetite has increased quite a bit, but without the boost in energy, I have to be very careful to not just sit around and eat all day! I know a person is supposed to gain some weight during pregnancy, but an increased appetite and no energy to do anything sounds like a bad formula for extreme weight gain!

I feel the baby moving quite a bit now. Usually I just feel general wiggliness (I know that isn't a real word, but it seems like the best descriptive word for this case), but sometimes I'll feel very clear kicks or punches. This morning while I was still in bed I yelled for Matt to come look at my belly. For the first time (at least with certainty) we saw the baby moving around from the outside. We saw some very clear kicks and punches, and just some waves across my belly and he or she moved around. It was really neat.

Our appointment to find out the sex of the baby is this month, and we are both really excited about finding out. I still don't have any mother's instinct feeling about whether it is a boy or girl, so I'm just really excited to know. We have done a few wives tales tests but they have come out pretty even with boy and girl results. As it gets closer to the reveal, I'll do a blog post with the findings of our tests, then we'll see how accurate they are. (Side note: I don't get the swinging a ring over the belly one... we tried and it does nothing unless you manipulate its movement... so either people just make that one up, or we have a faulty ring or faulty baby.)

Christmas Video 2014

Christmas Video 2013

Advent

As Advent comes to a close this year, I wanted to reflect upon why this Advent has meant so much.

Advent is the beginning of the church year. It is a time of waiting and expectation –– along with this comes wonder and, perhaps, even anxiety. In our own waiting, we recall Israel’s expectation of a coming Messiah. There must have been some serious concern, having returned from exile to a land that was no longer their own, now wondering if God would remember them. We recall the church’s waiting for Jesus’ promised second coming. Themes of hope, love, joy, and peace are remembered as we anticipate this day.

 

We also recall Mary and Joseph’s waiting during Mary’s pregnancy. One can imagine the joy they experienced as they awaited the coming of their child. We can even read Mary’s celebratory song in Luke’s gospel. Maybe they sat and talked about how they would decorate the nursery! One can also assume, though, that there was worry –– worry over what others would think; worry over Mary and the baby’s health; worry over being first-time parents.

 

It is this recollection that has made this year so special, as Lauren and I wait in expectation of our child. It is an interesting time of year for Lauren to be pregnant. We, too, are in the midst of anxiety as we experience similar thoughts. Still, there is great joy. It has been meaningful to think about how the giving of life has created life in her and how this reflects the very nature of God. Even though morning sickness has been miserable and more like “all-day sickness,” it is still meaningful that Lauren is already offering herself (while in suffering) to our child. This kind of offering will, indeed, never end.

 

And so it has been a special season of Advent, as we, in some way, feel a sort of closeness to the story we remember and celebrate.

 

- Matt

Porter Christmas

Now that we have a house and a place to store a Christmas tree, we finally gave in and bought a tree! Don't worry, though, our beloved tiny Christmas tree still has a special place above the fireplace. We decided to just do some stocking gifts for each other and to make the tree our real gift for each other this year.

These pictures are actually from before we finished decorating everything. I may try to get some pictures up later that show the finished product. We got a few more ornaments, and Matt built a wooden crate to sit at the base of the tree instead of a traditional tree skirt. But this still gives you an idea of what our Christmas decorations looked like!

Matt and I have sort of a tradition (or maybe just a bad habit) of opening presents and stockings whenever we feel like it. We've always said that we might as well enjoy it now, before children, when we can have Christmas however we want. We started out this year by saying, "This will be the last year we can do this! We'll have a kid next year!" In reality, though, we realized we could probably still get away with it for one more year. ;)

Penny had a stocking this year, too. She was super excited about it, but it took her a while to figure out what to do with it and how to get the treat that was inside of it. She is a major goof.

 

Matt and I had our stockings, too!

We shared some fun memories opening gifts and laughing about goofy things. Matt gave me four scarves... he told me later that they weren't meant to all be worn at the same time. Ooops!

Of course, little baby Porter didn't get left out of the fun. I was surprised to find a hidden present under the tree that was "To: Mommy, From: Baby," and oddly enough, the baby's handwriting looks a lot like Matt's! I got a beautiful Willow Tree figurine of a pregnant woman and her husband. I love it. I also got a gift for the baby, which was a stuffed fox named Cordy Roy. We plan on using a neutral colored outdoors/woodland creature/camping kind of theme in the nursery, regardless of the sex of the baby. So the fox gets us started.

On Saturday, at Pap's Christmas (Matt's grandpa) Matt's cousins, Ethan and Erin, gave the baby a stuffed elephant named Jorge. Erin has had a stuffed elephant since she was a baby named George and she takes him with her EVERYWHERE, so them giving us an elephant was pretty sweet.

So, the baby is already following in the footsteps of mom by collecting stuffed animals. :) He or she already has Jorge and Cordy!

I guess all of the Christmas excitement wore Penny out. She crashed on the couch shortly after we were done. She sleeps in some of the funniest positions... she definitely loves cuddling with her own feet!

We had a great Christmas together. We know things will be very different at this time next year, and we're excited for those adventures that are to come.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!